Computerized internet search system and method

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides a system and method that can search social media and Internet websites, and can analyze and display the results according to a variety of criteria including virality on social media websites. The results are presented in a user friendly format such as a magazine, newsletter, newspaper, or scrapbook.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 13/848,820, filedMar. 22, 2013, which claims priority based upon U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 61/614,163, filed on Mar. 22, 2012. The entirecontents of these applications are hereby incorporated by referenceherein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to Internet search systems or engines, and moreparticularly to Internet search engines that search social media as wellas news websites, e-commerce, websites, blogs, and blogging websitesinformation to create and present search results.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The Internet provides almost unlimited information to computer, tablet,and phone users having access thereto, but one needs an efficient searchtool to retrieve, organize, and present the retrieved information in aform that is useful to the searcher. Various search engines have beencreated using different approaches and algorithms to obtain and organizedata, as well as to present advertisements related to the subject of thesearch. Thus, an entire industry has grown up around these varioussearch engines.

One of the earliest successful search engines was Netscape, which wouldscour the Internet for items of interest using key words. Netscapeincluded algorithms to rank and display the results according to theirrelatedness to the search term.

Google, Inc. later produced another more successful search engine. Aswith Netscape, Google would search for key words using algorithms thatwould help to retrieve and rank the results of a search based upon akeyword or phrase entered into the search window. Google uses algorithmsthat rank the results in various ways, including according to the numberof times the key words appear in the item or website retrieved,including in the metadata and links to and from other websites. Thismakes Google susceptible of manipulation by those who are knowledgeableabout the algorithms used by Google to rank and display informationretrieved in a search. Further, Google introduced the ability to displayads alongside or above search results by advertisers who paid for suchdisplay by purchasing Google “ad words,” so that every time a searchterm is entered by a user, the advertisement or announcement wouldappear alongside or above the search results, and the advertiser'saccount would be charged accordingly for the advertisement. The price ofad words fluctuates according to their popularity, so that a verypopular search term (meaning a frequently used search term) would costconsiderably more than a less popular or frequently used search term.Google has developed algorithms to price ad words based on popularity.

Facebook has launched the well-known social media website, where a usercan create a Facebook page that includes photos, comments, links, andthe like posted on the subscriber's individual site. The website givessubscribers the opportunity to connect with other subscribers, byconnecting with or “friending” them, allowing them to send messages,post messages, photos, or the like on one another's Facebook page.Facebook has also announced that it will be launching a search engineusing Facebook, but its exact mechanism of operation and differencesfrom the existing search engines remains unclear.

In addition, Google has launched a social media site, similar in someways to Facebook, discussed below, but it is unclear at this juncturehow widely used that site is, or whether and how it ties into the basicGoogle search engine, and how Google offers this site to itsadvertisers. Google is mainly based on the page, in that the searchresults it displays are pages from other sites, such as an article froma newspaper or an entry on Wikipedia, the well-known online encyclopediawhose entries are donated by users.

Twitter presents another recent social media mode of communication overthe Internet, which allows users and subscribers to “tweet” messages to“followers” who have signed up to receive the messages tweeted by aparticular individual. These messages may range from a few words tolinks to rather lengthy “blogs” or comments about a particular event oritem of interest to the “tweeter” or the “follower.” These messages forthe most part do not seem to be retrieved by existing search engines,even though they have become frequently used by many individualsincluding celebrities, actors, politicians, newscasters, reporters, andothers. Twitter also gets used by various businesses to make productannouncements and special offers to customers who have signed up toreceive such information.

There remains a need for a search engine that can search moretraditional items such as newspapers, magazines, and Internet websites,as well as social websites and tweets, comments, and other usergenerated messages, and organize them in a way that presents theinformation so retrieved or located in an easy to use, organized, anduser friendly fashion. There also remains a need for a search enginethat can analyze and measure response instantaneously, and give reportson activity relating to a particular item or person of interest,including social demographics and other distinguishable characteristics.Such information would allow sponsors to follow particular groups andwould also allow advertisers to pick particular topics or search resultsto advertise alongside. Further, such information would allow pollstersand other types of analysts to measure public reaction to events ofpolitical importance.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The foregoing objects are achieved and the disadvantages of earlier orother systems are overcome by the present invention, which provides asearch engine and system comprising: non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium storing instructions executable by a computer system, thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructionsto: a computer system: receive specified search topic from a user'scomputing device such as a laptop, personal computer, tablet, cellulartelephone, smart phone and the like; for the specified search topic,search one or more social media networks, news or other websites, blogsor blogging websites and/or e-commerce sites to identify messages postedto the one or more social media or other websites related to thespecified topic; receive a selection of one or more attributespotentially associated with each of the identified messages from theremote computer; classify each of the identified messages according tothe one or more selected attributes; generate a visual representationindicating a quantity of the identified messages classified according tothe one or more selected attributes; and cause the visual representationto be provided to the remote computer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further objects, features, and advantages of the invention will becomeapparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reviewing thefollowing detailed description of the preferred embodiments taken inconnection with the following drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the system and method for carrying outan embodiment of the internet search system invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic drawing illustrating the operation of anadvertising action feature of the system of FIG. 1;

FIGS. 3 through 20 are screenshots of a demonstration illustratingvarious features of the embodiment of the invention shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 21 is a graph showing volume of social media activity around thesubject of interest.

FIG. 22 is a graph showing relative polarization (both negative andpositive) of social media users about a particular topic under analysis;and

FIG. 23 is a map depicting where social media users tend to favor ordisfavor a politician.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

As used herein, “Content Rank” refers to the weighted average affectionscore. It normalizes positive sentiment towards any topic (person,place, event, or thing) so that it can be compared and ranked againstany other topic, even if of a different type. The evolution of a topic'sContent Rank can be tracked over time. The algorithm to accomplish thisinvolves collecting and noting the number of pieces of content returnedfrom a search on a particular topic; determining whether the sentimentexpressed in each piece of content is positive, negative, or neutraltowards the topic.

“Content Pulse” refers to the virality score; average traffic speed ofmessages about a topic. The algorithm to accomplish this involves:

-   1. Noting the number of items of content (text, images, videos, or    any other form) returned for a search on a particular topic;-   2. Determining the interval between timestamps for each piece of    content;-   3. Adding up the timestamp intervals;-   4. Dividing the sum of the timestamp intervals by the number of    pieces of content returned; and-   5. Creating a table on which timestamp values are fitted to    corresponding non-numerical scores (for example, high virality might    be represented by a score of “A+”, and low virality might be    represented by a score of “F”).

Virality direction as used herein refers to the score indicatingincreasing or decreasing virality of a topic.

The algorithm for determining virality direction involves:

-   1. Creating a graph with an “X” axis and a “Y” axis; wherein:    -   a) The X axis will mark the positions of the pieces of content        in reverse order, such that the newest piece of content is at        the “1” position on the X axis, and the oldest piece of content        is given the “N” position on the X axis, with N being the total        number of pieces of content (for example, if 100 pieces of        content were returned in the search, then N is 100, and the        oldest piece of content will have the 100^(th) position on the X        axis);    -   b) The Y axis will indicate time value from 0 to infinity;-   2. Plotting the time value (Y coordinate) for interval between the    timestamp of each piece of content and the one preceding it (X    coordinate);-   3. Drawing a least-squares line through all the plotted points;-   4. Determining the slope of the resulting line (If the slope of the    resulting line is positive, and the intervals are getting    progressively shorter, then the virality of the topic is increasing;    if the slope of the resulting line is negative, and the intervals    are getting progressively longer, then the virality of the topic is    decreasing); and-   5. Indicating with a “+” when virality is increasing, and with a “−”    when virality is decreasing.

Turning to the drawings, FIG. 1 presents a diagrammatic view of theoperation of the social content and media search engine of the presentinvention 40. The user 42 logs into the system using a log-in screen 44,which may be for example the Facebook or other social site log-in page,and enters a search term. The system processes the search using servers48 including in the system of the present invention 40, which retrievesraw content from a portfolio 50 of monitored sites including socialmedia websites, e-commerce sites, and blogging sites, among others. Theraw content 50 is processed through the system's servers 48 and filteredby content scrubbing and enhancement algorithms 52, including asocio-demographic database, and U.S. and world census database, acomputational linguistics engine, a polarity aggregation engine, aknowledge extraction engine, a geolocation extraction engine, an engineto extract the user's socio-demographic and educational background, anda user's proxy “meta” identity for each social site.

Following the scrubbing and enhancement process, the processed andenhanced content 54 is further processed by a content relevance process56, which includes a content rank algorithm and a content pulsealgorithm to place the content in an order according to its popularityand virility mainly on social media websites. Following that, theenhanced and ranked content 58 undergoes a trend forecasting process 60,where its volubility or virality, momentum, and other financialengineering and technical analysis measures known in the art are used tocreate probability rankings to estimate the likelihood that the rankingsof the keyword will increase or decrease. The results 62 of thisforecasting process are forwarded to a portion of the system thatcalculates a real time mark to market value of the content 64. Theresults 62, along with probability rankings, are also forwarded to anadvertising bid/ask platform (FIG. 2) where prospective advertisersreceive messages about keywords of interest and can bid, auction style,on the amount they are willing to pay to have an advertisement appearalongside a particular item contained in the content collection. Thecontent collection gets further formatted into, for example, a format ofchoice, for which may be a magazine, newsletter, newspapers, journal,scrapbook, or the like, depending on subject matter search, userpreferences, and the like.

FIGS. 1 and 2 further illustrate the business to business aspect of thepresent invention, which permits sale of advertising by auction toadvertisers who may have expressed an interest in particular subjects,keywords, topics, or celebrities, for example. In addition,advertisements may be triggered once certain preset numerical levels ofcertain chosen metrics (such as virality score, popularity score,polarity score, or the like) have been reached. The trigger can belimited by geography or demography also, for example. Before that, thesystem offers prospective advertisers of the opportunity to place a bidfor particular keywords, and then receives and posts the bid to thebidders, allowing them to respond with a higher bid, if desired, until awinner emerges and the other bidders drop out. The winning bidder'sadvertisement is then inserted into the search results compendium in theappropriate place when the keyword reaches a defined level, as statedabove. In the example discussed herein, the search results showed avideo of President Obama on a skateboard receiving significant attentionon social media (views, likes, dislikes, comments, and shares), creatingan opportunity for a skateboard manufacturer to have its ad appear onthe same or different “page” as the video that was “going viral.”

The present invention provides a non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium storing instructions executable by a computer system, thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructionsto at least one computer system that receives a specified search topicfrom a user's personal computer, laptop, tablet, smartphone, or othercomputing device or terminal for the specified search topic. The systemalso has instructions to search as one or more social media networks,news or other websites, blogs or blogging websites and/or e-commercesites to identify messages posted to the one or more social media orother websites related to the specified topic. The storage mediumreceives a selection of one or more attributes potentially associatedwith each of the identified messages from the remote computer classifieseach of the identified messages according to the one or more selectedattributes generates a visual representation indicating a quantity ofthe identified messages classified according to the one or more selectedattributes; and causes the visual representation to be provided to theremote computer. The one or more selected attributes, may include a timeat which each of the identified messages was posted. The selection ofthe one or more attributes enables a further selection as to a range oftimes at which each of the identified messages was posted, and it mayinclude a geological location from which each of the identified messageswas posted. Further, the visual representation includes a graphindicating a number of the identified messages that were posted duringeach of a number of time periods. The graph may be a histogram.

The selection of the one or more selected attributes enables a furtherselection as to a plurality of geolocations to be included. Theinvention may display the visual representation as a map indicating aquantity of the identified messages that were posted from each of aplurality of geolocations, or as a graph indicating a quantity of theidentified messages that were posted from each of a plurality ofgeolocations. The geolocation may be a local community, a municipality,a state, a province, a region, a nation, and a continent, while theselected attribute may include one of relationships and flows betweenentities participating in the one or more social media networks.Additionally, the visual representation includes a social networkvisualization representing one of the relationships and the flowsbetween the entities participating in the one or more social medianetworks.

The invention further comprises parsing content of each of theidentified messages to determine the one or more attributes from thecontent of each of the identified messages. One or more attributesincludes a sentiment indicating one of a favorable attitude toward thespecified topic, a neutral attitude toward the specified topic, or anunfavorable attitude toward the specified topic.

In another embodiment, the visual representation includes a graphindicating a quantity of the identified messages indicating one of thefavorable attitudes toward the specified topic, the neutral attitudetoward the topic and the unfavorable attitude toward the topic.Additionally, the invention further comprises calculating a subjectivityindex indicative of what proportion of the identified messages indicateeither the favorable attitude toward the specified topic and theunfavorable attitude toward the specified topic as compared to a totalof the identified messages that indicate any of the favorable attitudetoward the specified topic, the neutral attitude toward the specifiedtopic, and the unfavorable attitude toward the specified topic. Inoperation, the invention calculates the subjectivity index, I, accordingto an equation including:

I=(Total Favorable+Total Negative)/(Total Favorable+Total Negative+TotalNeutral),

-   wherein: Total Favorable includes a quantity of the identified    messages indicating the favorable attitude toward the specified    topic;    -   Total Unfavorable includes a quantity of the identified messages        indicating the unfavorable attitude toward the specified topic;        and    -   Total Neutral includes a quantity of the identified messages        indicating the neutral attitude toward the specified topic.

The subjectivity index may be included in the visual representation, andthe visual representation includes a graph indicating the language inwhich each of the identified messages was posted. The one or moreattributes includes a language in which each of the identified messageswas posted, and may include a reference to a future time. The futuretime preferably includes at least one of a future time, a future date,or one of a plurality of terms indicating a subsequent time. Moreover,the plurality of terms indicating a subsequent time include one or moreof soon, later, tonight, tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year.The invention may also semantically analyze the content of theidentified messages based on parsing the content of each of theidentified messages. This may include identifying a list of words mostfrequently included in the identified messages, and may include apredetermined number of entries.

The invention preferably omits common connector words from the list ofwords most frequently included in the identified messages, such as oneor more of and, but, a, an, or, and the. The invention may also classifywords included in the list of words most frequently included in theidentified messages according to parts of speech represented by thewords included in the list of words most frequently included in theidentified messages. The parts of speech include two or more of nouns,verbs, adjectives, adverbs, place names, proper names, and wordsindicative of time, and may also involve determining a quantity of eachof the parts of speech represented in the list of words most frequentlyincluded in the list of identified messages. The quantity of each of theparts of speech includes a proportion of the part of speech representedin the list of words most frequently included in the list of identifiedmessages. Further, the visual representation of the quantity of thewords apportioned a pre-determined ratio of the parts of speechrepresented in the list of words most frequently included in the list ofidentified messages.

The quantity of the identified messages classified according to the oneor more selected attributes is expressed as a total, as a fraction, oras a percentage. The visual representation may include one of a table, amap, a histogram, a bar graph, a line graph, and pie chart, and it maybe selected from a remote computer.

The selection may cause an advertisement to be provided to the remotecomputer based on the specified topic. Preferably the advertisement istopically related to the specified topic, and the advertisement isselectively associated with the specified topic by an advertiser. Thesystem can cause an advertisement to be provided to the remote computerbased on information accessible about a user of the remote computer orother computing device, and can elicit remuneration from a user of theremote computer or other computing device.

The invention further provides at a server computer system incommunication with an Internet enabling communication with servercomputers hosting one or more social media networks and a remotecomputer comprising: receiving specification of a topic from the remotepersonal computer, laptop, tablet, smartphone, or other computingdevice, for the specified topic, searching the one or more social medianetworks to identify messages posted to the one or more social media websites related to the specified topic, receiving a selection of one ormore attributes potentially associated with each of the identifiedmessages from the remote computer, automatically classifying each of theidentified messages according to the one or more selected attributes,generating a visual representation indicating a quantity of theidentified messages classified according to the one or more selectedattributes, and causing the visual representation to be provided to theremote computer.

The one or more selected attributes may include a time at which each ofthe identified messages was posted, and a geolocation from which each ofthe identified messages was posted. The selected attribute may includeone of relationships and flows between entities participating in the oneor more social media networks. The method may further comprise parsingcontent of each of the identified messages to determine the one or moreattributes from the content of each of the identified messages. Theattributes may be a sentiment indicating one of a favorable attitudetoward the specified topic, a neutral attitude toward the specifiedtopic, and an unfavorable attitude toward the specified topic, it mayalso include the neutral attitude toward the specified topic when thesentiment is not determined to indicate either the favorable attitudetoward the specified topic or the unfavorable attitude toward thespecified topic.

The method may further comprise calculating a subjectivity indexindicative of what proportion of the identified messages indicate eitherthe favorable attitude toward the specified topic and the unfavorableattitude toward the specified topic as compared to a total of theidentified messages that indicate any of the favorable attitude towardthe specified topic, the neutral attitude toward the specified topic,and the unfavorable attitude toward the specified topic.

In one embodiment, the subjectivity index, I, is calculated according toan equation including:

I=(Total Favorable+Total Negative)/(Total Favorable+Total Negative+TotalNeutral),

-   wherein: Total Favorable includes a quantity of the identified    messages indicating the favorable attitude toward the specified    topic;    -   Total Unfavorable includes a quantity of the identified messages        indicating the unfavorable attitude toward the specified topic;        and    -   Total Neutral includes a quantity of the identified messages        indicating the neutral attitude toward the specified topic.

The subjectivity index may be a visual representation. The one or moreattributes may include a language in which each of the identifiedmessages was posted. The visual representation may include a graphindicating the language in which each of the identified messages wasposted. The one or more attributes may include a reference to a futuretime, which may in turn include at least one of a future time, a futuredate, or one of a plurality of terms indicating a subsequent time. Thesubsequent time may include one or more of soon, later, tonight,tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year, or specific dates,points, or ranges of time.

The method preferably can semantically analyze the content of theidentified messages by parsing the content of each of the identifiedmessages. Semantically analyzing the content of the identified messagesincludes identifying a list of words most frequently included in theidentified messages. The list of words most frequently included in theidentified messages includes a predetermined number of entries, butomits common connector words from the list of words most frequentlyincluded in the identified messages, such as one or more of and, but, a,an, or, and the. The method additionally classifies words included inthe list of words most frequently included in the identified messagesaccording to parts of speech represented by the words included in thelist of words most frequently included in the identified messages. Theparts of speech include two or more of nouns, verbs, adjectives,adverbs, place names, proper names, and words indicative of time, andthe method determines a quantity of each of the parts of speechrepresented in the list of words most frequently included in the list ofidentified messages. The quantity of each of the parts of speechincludes a proportion of the part of speech represented in the list ofwords most frequently included in the list of identified messages. Inaddition, the method may include in the visual representation thequantity of the parts of speech represented in the list of words mostfrequently included in the list of identified messages.

In one embodiment, the quantity of the identified messages classifiedaccording to the one or more selected attributes is expressed as atotal. In another embodiment, the quantity of the identified messagesclassified according to the one or more selected attributes is expressedas a fraction, or a percentage. In a further embodiment, the visualrepresentation includes one of a table, a map, a histogram, a bar graph,a line graph, and pie chart. The method can also cause an advertisementto be provided to the remote computer based on the specified topic, andthe advertisement may be topically related to the specified topic. Theadvertisement may be selectively associated with the specified topic byan advertiser. Finally, the method can cause an advertisement to beprovided to the remote computer based on information accessible about auser of the remote computer, and it can accept remuneration from a userof the remote computer. The user can also earn loyalty points or creditsby using the system. The advertisement can be selectively displayed whenpredetermined levels of vitality, popularity, and/or polarity arereached for a specific topic.

The search engine system of the present invention will now be describedwith reference to a particular example of a search including social andother internet and websites. FIG. 3 shows a tablet 300 having an icon tolaunch the search engine of the present invention, it being understoodthat the search engine can also be run on a personal computer, laptop,smartphone, iPod, mobile phone or other electronic computational devicecapable of connecting to the Internet through a network. The useractivates the icon, which opens the application for the search engine ofthe present invention. As shown in FIG. 4, a log-in screen appearsasking the user to sign in with a Facebook ID and password (forexample), or other social media log-in 320 or the proprietary log-in forthe system of the present invention 330, known as a “ttwick meta socialID.”

Following successful log-in, the search engine recalls or gathersinformation about the user either from servers operated by the presentsystem (see FIG. 1), or from social media sites to which the userssubscribe or belong. These sites can be identified by the user in apreliminary questionnaire or drawn from the Internet using the searchand storage capabilities of the present invention. Next, the searchengine offers the user a search bar 340 into which the user types orotherwise enters (using Siri or other voice activated system, forexample) a search term on which the user desires to collect information,and the presses the “enter” or “return” key 350 to commence the search.

While the search proceeds (see FIG. 6) and the system 300 gathers socialmedia and other content, the system 300 may display an intermediatescreen 360 that shows the user's profile summary 370, including alibrary of previous search compendia 380 displayed in the form ofprevious real time magazines. The screen 360 may also display clickableicons for strategic partners 390 where accumulated usage and bonuspoints may be redeemed or purchaser made, or paid advertisements ofinterest to the user, which is in effect a short commercial breakdisplayed during the search process.

Once the search engine of the present invention completes the search andassembles and organizes the collected results, it will display theresults in a user friendly real time magazine format 395 that the usercan review (FIG. 7). The magazine includes a cover 400 featuring aphotograph, drawing, or other image that represents the subject matterof the search, in this case, President Barack Obama. Accompanying orsuperimposed on the magazine cover 400, the user finds the display of areal time score 410 reflecting the popularity of the search term, areflection of the degree to which other social media users tend to havea positive perception about this topic more or less in comparison toother current topics of interest. The cover 400 also includes “bars” 420that indicate sources of social media content, arranged by order ofvolume, also displayed under the monitor “Real Time Buzz,” by website orother online application (for example, Tumblr, YouTube, WordPress,Google Plus (G+), Twitter, and Facebook) or any other platform. Thecover also includes tabs 430 that retrieve information such as aWikipedia page related to the search topic or navigate to specificsections of the “magazine.”

As the user begins to browse the magazine 400 contents, by displayingscreens following the cover 400. Although the particular order ofdisplay may vary according to user or originator preference, in apreferred embodiment, the search engine first displays social mediacontent on the screen 440, with an icon 450 showing the source thereof(in this case a WordPress blog), along with other buttons that allow theuser to comment, forward, “like,” “dislike,” or share the contentthrough social media websites. The “dislike” feature which is unique,provides valuable information to analysts and marketers.

The user turns the “page” (FIG. 9) and the search engine displaysadditional social media content 470. On this page, the user chooses tocomment on the previous page through Facebook (for example) 480,although of course other websites or social media sites can be used topost a comment (not shown).

FIG. 10 shows further social media responsive to the search inquiry,here displayed as split screens to present several additional items ofinformation from different social media websites simultaneously to limitthe amount of page turning or scrolling the user must do to review thenumerous responses for a particular search. The search results alsopreferably presents a “virality alert,” that indicates that a contentitem, such as an article, comment, image, tweet, video, or other form ofsocial medium entry has received significant attention from viewers, andan algorithm included in the present invention collates demographic andgeographic information related to the alert. In the present example, thesearch engine located a video of President Obama riding a skateboardacross the stage at a conference at which he spoke, which generatedsignificant attention from the general public, but also from a younger,male demographic group interested in skateboarding. This demographic andgeographic information may be displayed as part of the virality alert500.

In an important aspect of the invention, the system has the ability tocall up and display advertisements, announcements, or other items ofinterest in response to a “virality alert” appearing in response to thesearch. Thus, as illustrated in FIG. 11, the screen, or a portionthereof, displays an ad 510 for a skateboard (for example) in responseto the social media entry on the previous page of President Obama on askateboard. This feature seems particularly powerful, because the entityplacing the ad, either the advertiser or its agency, can select aninflection point, meaning the ad will appear only if a certain level oftraffic, virality, popularity, or other measure exists for the item, orif it fits other predetermined demographic or geographic criteria.Alternatively, the system can notify a plurality of possible advertisersand award the ad to the highest bidder, using an exchange system thatallows the participants to bid in real time for the same ad space.

FIGS. 12 through 14 continue to display additional media content, andoffer some or all of the additional features previously discussed,including virality alerts, source icons, forward or comment buttons,like or dislike buttons, and advertisements. Using these features tocontact others or create or forward social media content (includinglikes, and dislikes) can earn the user loyalty points or credits thatmay be redeemed for various offers from strategic partners.

FIG. 14 also displays an additional feature and method in which thesystem can draw advertisers as discussed above, using a GPS locator ortriangulation locator used by cell phone carriers to locate a user.Advertisements and notices can be then posted as ads in the magazine tooffer the user a particular product or service. In FIG. 14, a chain ofcoffee shops offers a “cents off” coupon to users based upon theirproximity to a store and perhaps based upon other factors such asprevious percentage or previously expressed “likes” for the particularbrand or one of their products, or any other factor determined by theadvertiser. The ad may also connect the user to a social media siteusing a QR or bar code 530, or may be a traditional ad that displays aproduct, its price, and the store or other vendor selling the item 540.

An additional feature, also making use of the user's location astransmitted, may be seen in FIG. 15, which displays a map 550 showingthe user's location and any nearby sources of social media contentlocated in the search 555. Clicking on the location pin 560 shown on themap retrieves information on the source and a link to the contentlocated nearby. The user can review the content and communicate with thesource. Merchants can insert location pins with ads or messages with anoffer or offers generated in real time. The map can be zoomed in or outmanually or by selecting a preset level of detail based on geographicdivision (for example, city, state, providence, country, etc.) to showadditional or fewer locations and offers.

FIG. 16 displays a “knowledge cloud” 570, an important feature of thepresent invention. The knowledge cloud includes words arranged by partof speech and weighted by frequency and importance in relation to thesearch term. The words are distilled from the content returned in thesearch and displayed in real time. Thus, if a particular word, whichrepresents a topic, receives significant attention on social media, itslocation on the cloud its relative size, color or intensity may changewith time.

FIG. 17 shows the sub-topic break-down of the social medial content 580as organized by a topic classifying algorithm that displays results inreal time. FIG. 18 displays icons for key social media influencers onthe search topic, emphasizing the demographic sectors creating highestimpact, also in real time. In this embodiment, the screen displays twoicons 590 showing the social media content most influential or appearingmost often in the results. FIG. 19 displays some suggested relatedsearch topics 600. The system 300 suggests other search topics byanalyzing search patterns of other users. In the example discussedherein, the system suggests Michelle Obama, Joe Biden, and George W.Bush, as possible other searches of interest, and presents theirpictures, on which the user can check to initiate an additional search.

FIG. 20 illustrates another feature of the invention. The screen 610displays alerts that the user has set for specific topics. The topicsand levels are set by the user, and can reflect a rise or drop in socialmedial traffic, and/or a rise or drop in popularity.

FIG. 21 illustrates the open high low close chart used in the presentinvention to determine the volume of social media activity around asubject. The Open High Low Close (OHLC) chart shows the first stage inthe transformation of a social media message into a metric indicatingthe volume of social medial activity around the subject. This isbasically a message counter, which also shows the rate at which messageson the subject were sent. This metric shows spikes and downturns inmessage posting activity. This same format is used in tradingenvironments, where the opening, high, low, and closing prices ofsecurities for any day are displayed. The present invention defines its“trading day” as a set number of hours during which the system monitorsmessages transformed into metrics, and keeps track of the patterns thatfeed the algorithms used in the present invention. The lower graph showstotal volume of messages returned by the search.

FIG. 22 shows polarization of social media users (both positive andnegative) about a particular subject being analyzed, and on all topicsrelated to the subject over the last 14 days, showing the relativeproportions of positive messages to negative messages. Similarly, FIG.24 shows another feature of the invention, a “heat map.” This map shows,on a scale of 1 to 100, where in the U.S. social media users tend tolike or dislike a subject, over all topics, and covering millions ofdata points that the system of the present invention has collected overseveral months. The number 1 indicates a state with very negativesentiment towards a subject, such as politician or even, and isdisplayed in red, for example. The number 100 indicates a state withvery positive sentiment towards a subject, and the state will bedisplayed in green, for example. States with balanced sentiment orinsufficient data have values near 50 and are displayed in yellow (forexample) hues.

The present invention thus provides a search engine that can search atopic throughout various social media, such as blogs, tweets, and thelike, in additional to more conventional websites, and present theresults in a user friendly format, such as a magazine, newsletter,scrapbooks, photo album, or newspaper. Various modifications andalternatives will occur to those skilled in the art upon reviewing thepresent specification. It is intended that all such modifications beincluded within the scope and spirit of the present invention, asdefined by the following claims.

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storinginstructions executable by a computer system, the non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium comprising instructions to: at acomputer system: receive specified search topic from a user's personalcomputer, laptop, tablet, smartphone, or other computing device orterminal; for the specified search topic, search one or more socialmedia networks, news or other websites, blogs or blogging websitesand/or e-commerce sites to identify messages posted to the one or moresocial media or other websites related to the specified topic; receive aselection of one or more attributes potentially associated with each ofthe identified messages from the remote computer; classify each of theidentified messages according to the one or more selected attributes;generate a visual representation indicating a quantity of the identifiedmessages classified according to the one or more selected attributes;and cause the visual representation to be provided to the remotecomputer.